275 films! Which I definitely hit by my target date (October 1st), but this post has been delayed due to unforeseen dragging of feet. I saw some brilliant classic films this time (“Rashomon” and “Bicycle Thieves”), a couple wildly different yet curiously the same political thrillers (“The Parallax View” and “The Manchurian Candidate”), plus many recent releases, because going to the cinema is just a great way to spend a couple hours.

The two films that stood out far above the crowd were “Battle of the Sexes“ and “mother!”, and part of the delay in getting this post up was finding the time to write reviews that came close to touching on my feelings for them. Once I started writing, the words came tumbling out and created longer reviews than normal. So without further ado, I’ll get to my highlighted films from this 25 movie chunk!

For those keeping track, the full list of 25 films I’ve watched is listed below the reviews. And you can check out what I’m currently watching by visiting my MovieADay list on IMDb.

‘mother!’ (2017)

Oh goodness, what can I say about mother!… Actually, what can’t I say about mother! I adored this film. I’ve already decided to see it again, and it’s definitely jumped into my top 5 films of the year. (It’s sitting pretty at number 3, right behind ‘Baby Driver’ and ‘Wonder Woman’.)

First, it’s just gorgeous. I mean, the directing and cinematography are just amazing. The colors and staging of everything, from the calm, pastoral moments to the hauntingly horrific Apocalypse Now-esque moments, it’s just stunning. And the camera work- so the house, which is really just as much a character as the other mains, is based on an octagonal shape. So when you’re looking through doors, or turning around through the middle of the house, you never encounter a flat surface - it’s all more angles and door frames, and the camera navigates this beautifully. The layout of the house is used so well to maintain the tension strung throughout the movie. And the color palette as well - at the beginning it seems like a blank canvas, something to project on, wide open with possibilities. Lawrence adds the barest of color - a yellow, not a bright, overbearing yellow, but a yellow that reminded me of Tuscany, of a sun kissed, pure warmth. As the story progresses, the colors change, growing darker, murkier, following the path of chaos reflected in the plot.

With that, let’s get to the plot. Yes, this film was overall an allegory. Maybe that’s why some people didn’t like it. Yes, at times that allegory touched on keystones of different religions. Maybe that’s why some people didn’t like it. But for me, it all worked so well. It took a little while (until the sons showed up, really) for the biblical part of the allegory to click, but when it did, I felt brilliantly blown away. And he’s not telling a specific religious story here; there are incorporations from different beliefs and ideologies that make up the rich tapestry of the film. On top of that, the social commentary reflected a lot of what I’m feeling right now about how humans are treating each other and our home. The last half hour of madness was horrifying, blood-boiling, and cathartic all at the same time. And my goodness, Jennifer Lawrence’s performance - no wonder she tore her diaphragm during filming!

For me, this is what the film medium was made for. These types of films, these passionate, difficult, intelligent works of art, this is why I love movies. Aronofsky has created a masterpiece. I know plenty of people who disagree - but that’s even more of what makes it art; art is subjective, great art should inspire discussion, and great art that makes a statement is often going to be subversive and challenging. I love talking about mother! just as much as I loved watching it. (Just don’t get me started on how badly Paramount did with their ad campaign. Oi vey.) Aronofsky gets a high 9/10 from me.

‘Miss Sloane’ (2016)

Jessica Chastain continues to find these delightfully hard-nosed, women in charge roles that are fantastic, and her talent at bringing out the nuances in these characters continues to make the movies she is in shine. This was no exception - Chastain plays a lobbyist, one of the best in the business, who switches her corporate hat for one of crusader in trying to tackle the gun lobby and pass a bill with background checks for gun purchasers.

It’s a cat and mouse game, fighting against her former employers who think they have her all figured out - but every time you think the trump card has been played, there’s something else waiting in the wings. It’s crafted close to a political thriller at times, and written in a vein so Sorkin-esque that I had to check the writing credit. (Jonathan Perera, and it’s his first and currently only screenplay. Impressive.) It’s sharp, at times dark, yet immensely fun to watch - Chastain once again elevates a film with her performance to make it something you shouldn’t miss. (8/10)

‘Bicycle Thieves’ (1948)

This crossed off another top 100 movie (as listed on IMDb’s Top Rated Movies List). What can I say about this film? It’s a classic, and a widely celebrated film, for a reason. For many reasons, really. I could wax on about the Italian neo-realism, about any parables it holds, et cetera et cetera, but at the heart of it, this film is a beautifully touching drama about a man who wants to provide for his family, and yet in post-war Italy, society makes that incredibly hard.

De Sica cast non-actors, which grounds this film in the reality of the tale being told. His filming is slightly detached, which makes the sincerity of the cast that much more important - as they search Rome for the lost bicycle, clearly a fruitless pursuit, the simple truth of life for these characters can be felt solely through the performances on screen. There was a beautiful sequence that plays out when the father and son are trying to follow an old man, and they lose him. The father gets mad at his son and strikes him, causing the boy to shy away from him. He then demands that the boy wait for him on a bridge, as he goes the other direction to look for the old man. As he’s walking near the river, he hears shouts about a boy drowning… and the look on his face as he processes that it could be his son, and his shame in how he treated him, and his fear of losing him as he runs towards the shouts… it’s heartrending. The whole movie has moments like that, all realized beautifully by De Sica. It’s truly a film you should see at least once in your lifetime. (8/10)

‘Table 19’ (2017)

Just to prove that I don’t always watch stellar films (or that I don’t enjoy every film I watch), I’m trying to highlight at least one film a post that didn’t work for me. This time it’s Table 19. Really the film didn’t become a cohesive piece - it felt often that it was little vignettes, some of them quite effective, but the thread pulling the story together wasn’t there. Or maybe it was just that it couldn’t decide what type of movie it wanted to be - it shifted moods far too often. Maybe some would call that good - the trope I predicted at the beginning of the film didn’t come true (cute British dude was NOT who she ends up with) and there were bits throughout that highlighted people as three-dimensional beings who make mistakes, but who aren’t easily defined as heroes and villains.

But to really explore the ‘everyone’s human’, the film needed a bit more room to breathe - I rarely say ‘this needed 20 more minutes of film’ but in this case I think it would have helped, even if those 20 minutes were just used to smooth over the jagged transitions between scenes and character stories. Also, I don’t care if your brother dumped her recently, if you are actually still friends with your longest friend, then she’s probably pretty darn close to being your best friend, and there’s NO WAY you don’t want her to be a part of your big day. Seriously. What was that. (6/10 - keep in mind, 6 means I wouldn’t go out of my to recommend it to you, so it’s a low rating for me.)

‘Royal Wedding’ (1951)

I’ve definitely seen the room dance before, but I had never seen this film in full. It’s a fun, lush musical that hits all those classic musical tropes - Fred Astaire dancing with inanimate objects, an Atlantic voyage where love is kindled, the show-within-a-show to allow for fantastically bright and ridiculous costumes and song-and-dance numbers, and of course it ends with a wedding. Three, really, but who’s counting.

Astaire is superb as always, but Jane Powell often steals the show - she holds her own against Astaire’s wit and dancing prowess. It also helps that they are paired as brother and sister, rather than lovers, as their chemistry on-screen is perfect as show-biz siblings. (One questions whether sibling duos would really have ALL their on-stage numbers written for them to be lovers, but hey, to each their own.) And Sarah Churchill was just stunning, with a vibe that echoes Vanessa Redgrave’s cool detachment in ‘Blow-Up’, yet after checking her IMDb page, she went on to do… not much else. Shame, really, because I enjoyed her bit part in this. Overall it’s a delightful Technicolor spectacle, and the dancing on the walls/ceiling number in one fluid take is worth the price of admission alone. (Right now, if you have Prime, the price of admission is zero, so… ta-da!) 8/10 for a fun musical.

‘Bad Moms’ (2016)

I enjoyed this with a couple glasses of wine, and it was the best way to unwind at the end of a day. This film was so damn hilarious. The comedic talents of Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell, and Kathryn Hahn play really well together, and I’m actually looking forward to the ‘Bad Moms Christmas’ they have coming up. So no, you don’t have to have kids to appreciate and enjoy this movie! I was totally empathizing with Kunis’s character on the “must be superwoman and do everything” mentality that becomes so overwhelming in society. Even though I’m working 40 hours a week, I feel guilty when I don’t plan the meals, cook everything, clean up the house, do the laundry, and develop all my hobbies and interests, plus stay social with friends and professional connections on top of it all. (No, my partner does not insist on any of these things. He’s wonderful and supportive. It’s internal guilt that I can’t quite defeat.) The thought of adding kids to that mix - it’s no wonder that the speech which resonates with her fellow moms is a cry to just do “a little less”.

But this film attacks those issues with a sharp humor and a soft heart, and it felt well-crafted and fun throughout. Grab a glass of something fancy, curl up on the couch, and do yourself a favor - do a little less for about an hour and a half, and laugh your way through this movie. (8/10)

‘It’ (2017)

Well, it made me jump and squirm, so that’s what it was supposed to do, right? It was actually a pretty successful adaptation of what is, by most accounts, a bit of a difficult Stephen King novel to get through and deal with the right way. On the surface, it’s a horror movie about a creepy-ass clown that is eating children. (Just why. Why clowns. Make it stop.) But underneath that, King wrote a story that has a lot to do with coming-of-age and the real fears of kids, and how to face them in the world. And ‘It’ does a good job of translating that - this adaptation focuses just on the childhood encounters of the characters, so you get a pretty focused scary movie meets coming-of-age summer film. You know, ‘Stand By Me’ with a killer clown, basically.

To be honest, the real horrors lie more with the kid-on-kid violence (the ‘Loser’ club, as they call themselves, have another common enemy that doesn’t have a painted face and red balloons - the town bully is sadistic, and creepy, and they don’t shy away from really awful violence). In addition, adults are mostly absent - when they are in the picture, they seem to be extensions of the evil terrorizing the town, specifically in the form of a Munchausen-by-proxy mother and an abusive father. Even when adults are on screen, they seem to be nonplussed by the children’s fears and tribulations. Clearly, the town of Derry has more issues than just an evil clown - unless he’s the thing orchestrating the altogether creepy feeling that this small town gives off. By the end, you begin to believe that this ancient evil has been creating a creepy town for years, because it feeds off children’s fears, so it just makes sense.

Focusing on the kids, and bringing the story into the 80’s, has worked well in the film’s favor. Many aspects of the original book have been changed - it’s a giant novel, really, but also it’s very strange in some places (and features a kid orgy in others, which lets just not talk about that), and the film has done away with all that in exchange for a smoother narrative. What should be interesting is if they do make the second part of the book, which features the Losers all grown up and coming back to Derry to face It once more, is how the film will play without the solid thread of adolescence running through it. (8/10)

‘Battle of the Sexes’ (2017)

Emma Stone is the heart of this film, and she is fantastic as Billie Jean King. What this film delivers is not a biopic in the traditional sense - while it does explore King (and to a lesser extent, Riggs), it does so in a mere moment in time. But it’s an important moment, and a meaty moment, and the film fills out the nooks and crannies really well. At first you may find yourself asking for the advertised “battle” to come faster, as the film takes its time to establish the players. Looking back on it, the buildup was worth it - at times they even manage to humanize the self-styled chauvinist pig of Bobby Riggs. (Barely. Mostly in moments with his kids. But then you realize that he has two sons, and thinking about their exposure to their father’s toxic sexism is horrifying.) But really, this film is about Billie Jean, who struggles not only with being a woman and pioneering respect in the tennis world, but also struggling with her sexual identity in a world that is even further away from embracing equality for homosexuals. (This is set in the 70s, for those who don’t know.)

The performances throughout are great, but again, Emma Stone is the shining star of this film. Steve Carell really goes for it; Riggs seems too ridiculous to be true, but he does well to ground the character in the quieter, more desperate moments. Sarah Silverman added some great moments of comedy, even when they came with the sting of a crappy reality. And Alan Cumming was a delight.

I came out of this film very satisfied, and at the same time furious, because the real gut punch throughout the film was the casual, systemic sexism. Riggs is billed as a buffoon, and is all too easily a distraction from the casual sexism and anti-woman sentiment expressed by peripheral characters. One specific moment was during the match commentary, they had a male and female commentator, and he spent most of his time with his hand on her shoulder, standing incredibly close to her, and towering over her. Of course there was talking down and “little lady” type comments thrown her way as well, but the physical privilege and leverage he granted himself with her… The entrenched sexism took my breath away. And I just couldn’t help feeling that we haven’t come far enough. (Just look at the Cam Newton incident, for one example.) Whether or not Stone gets another Awards nod from this remains to be seen, but you shouldn’t miss this film - solid 9/10 for me.

All Watched Films: 251 through 275

251. A Brilliant Young Mind (2014)
252. The Dark Tower (2017)
253. The Parallax View (1974)
254. Miss Sloane (2016)
255. Bicycle Thieves (1948)
256. Royal Wedding (1951)
257. It (2017)
258. Bad Moms (2016)
259. Table 19 (2017)
260. mother! (2017)
261. Rashomon (1950)
262. Westworld (1973)
263. Victoria and Abdul (2017)
264. American Assassin (2017)
265. Home Again (2017)
266. Keeping Up with the Joneses (2016)
267. The Italian Job (1969)
268. The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
269. The Producers (1967)
270. Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017)
271. High Noon (1952)
272. Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001)
273. Stronger (2017)
274. Battle of the Sexes (2017)
275. Postcards from the Edge (1990)

I’m already working my way through the next 25 - spoiler alert: it includes A LOT of Disney films that I’ve somehow never seen, because a group of us are boning up for a Disney pub trivia night. It’s a good excuse to be a kid again. As always, if you’ve missed any of my MovieADay updates, you can find them all here.